Proud to be American,

Today, let us reflect on two of those values, namely “more stuff cheap” [Amen], and “business as a moral calling” “highest standards of honesty and transparency” , um, wait a minute, “if no-one’s not many people have been indicted convicted yet, nothing has actually happened; keep moving and go shopping”.

I sure would have missed this story on the front page of nytimes.com if you hadn’t blogged about it. Oh wait, you actually had something interesting to say? Or you just want to do a little Limbaugh-esque snarky ranting except from the left. Executives from a several hundred billion dollar corporation cover up $25MM in bribes of local government officials. Terrible story, let’s prosecute the bastards, but how that turns into snark about ‘proud day to be American’ eludes me. Unless you’re holding back on some actual insight beyond your snark. Walmart’s execs sure seemed worried about how proud Americans would react if we found out about their little Mexican screw-up, and the Mexican execs sure seemed to think it was important to keep Bentonville in the dark – neither of which suggests the broader American reaction was expected to be ““more stuff cheap” [Amen], and “business as a moral calling” “highest standards of honesty and transparency” , um, wait a minute, “if no-one’s not many people have been indicted convicted yet, nothing has actually happened; keep moving and go shopping”.”

This would probably have more to say about American culture, if it were about something Walmart was doing in America, rather than notoriously corrupt Mexico. Yes, American corporations have problems with foreign branches adopting local ethics. Our own local ethics are still a bit better than much of the world, though slipping conspicuously, as has been seen with the last few years’ crony capitalism.

On a different point, so James, what do you think of Suu Kyi’s refusal to join the Myanmar parliament?
Like I said, saints tend not to make good politicians, but to move forward, at some point you negotiate, you don’t just continue saying no, no matter what.

Imagine, Wallmart engaged in dirty dealing to increase it’s stranglehold on the market. And then they engaged in a coverup. I’m shocked! Shocked!

And while we are talking about “cheap stuff”: I actually compared prices at Wallmart with some competitors a few years back. I needed a list of houshold stuff like a big trash can, trash bags, push broom, etc. I compared Wallmart, K Mart, Lowes and a local hardware store. The result was that Wallmart sold the worst quality at the highest prices. The best quality and lowest prices were at the local hardware. This may be a local anomaly as the hardware shop had been there foreever and owns the building and the box stores are all in high rent locations in a high rent area but still…
Heavy marketing of crappy junk and bad service convince people that the discount box stores are cheaper but in my expierience it just isn’t so.

I too think it’s weird to frame this as a stain on American values, rather than on a toxic corporate culture. We’re not the only first-world nation to have experienced corruption, bribes, and graft. Nor is this even an exceptional instance of such within the US (see Enron, Abrahamoff, Madoff, et al as examples.)

America is complex; we espouse the highest standards, but sometimes Americans engage in the lowest practices. It’s worth pointing these lapses out when they happen, but please keep them in perspective.

The problem that some of us have (you are of course welcome to disagree) is that we view the talking points about American Exceptionalism as a screen to shield large companies who do little, if anything, to grow wealth for the country overall. Henry Ford might have been an asshole, but he did help create a middle class. Last I heard, the beneficiaries of Walmart were more concerned that money passed down might be taxed, and we’re conjuring up imaginary farmers to talk about, instead of themselves.

If you think that executive compensation, at current levels, makes sense, and that we need to somehow cut Medicare to give more money to companies that don’t pay taxes, then please, keep talking about the American Dream.

Who is your comment responding to? If it’s me, then you’ve missed my point by miles, and also ascribed to me some beliefs that a. I don’t believe and b. you’d have no grounds for knowing based on my brief point above.

(See, for instance, your wildly speculative comment about my thinking: “If you think that executive compensation, at current levels, makes sense [I don't], and that we need to somehow cut Medicare to give more money to companies that don’t pay taxes [I don't], then please, keep talking about the American Dream [I'm an optimist, so yes, I will.]“)

I’m surprised that you didn’t connect the Wal-Mart bribery scandal to the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Columbia.

The United States, itself, has sunk waist-deep in petty corruption — never mind poor Mexico. Last week, I tried to help an elderly neighbor to get DSL service, to replace AOL dial-up. Dealing with Verizon on the phone was an hour-long series of come-ons. I’m still not sure that I did not commit her to becoming the victim of some bit of fraud, involving a change in her local v long-distance service. My cell-phone provider loves to add fake taxes to my bill. My bank — don’t even get me started. I saw an ad the other day on television for a loan-shark — literally a loan shark! — advertising a loan “product” up to $5000, at 111% interest over a term that could extend to 7 years. Based on an Indian reservation (natch! aren’t most unregulated casinos?), their pitch was that they were offering major savings over payday lenders.

Liberals, of which used to be one, love to talk airily about “income inequality”, but the problem on the ground is that the wealthy and powerful are deriving their incomes increasingly from petty economic predation and corruption. It undermines the culture, and does so rapidly. Doing the right thing, respect for law — these are just a dim memory in a country, which will prosecute neither torture nor pandemic financial fraud, and requires its youth to accept debt peonage as the price of (possible) admission to the middle class.

That corrosive culture, accepting as normal petty corruption and monumental greed, undermines all respect, and, pretty soon, you have the elite corps charged with protecting the person of the President of the United States partying hard in a foreign capital.